Thursday, February 26, 2009

Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson celebrates its 10th anniversary this year. Penguin is doing a special promo for it (including a 10th anniversary edition!) and Lenore and I decided to take part by doing a special tandem feature. This is Part 1 - we have more to come.

If you're interested in purchasing Speak (and you should be, it's a fantastic book), I found a $3.99 bargain edition (new and everything) on Amazon here. There's also the 10th Anniversary edition (mentioned above) here, for you collector folks ;)

Here's the handy table of contents so you can follow along in order:

Part 1 Steph and Lenore speak up about Speak (at Reviewer X)Part 2: Steph and Lenore speak up about Speak (continued) (at Presenting Lenore)[more surprises will be added on!]

So, here goes!

Steph:I'm going to start this whole shebang by reprimanding you, my friend. Actually, REPRIMANDING is too weak: I should be SPANKING you. Why had you NOT READ THIS SOONER?! And what was your overall impression now that you have?

Lenore: Hey, at least I FINALLY bought it and read it right? I don’t know. I knew it was well loved by many, banned by some, described as "that rape book", or compared to Sarah Dessen's Just Listen (which is sitting on my shelf, waiting patiently to be read). I was prepared for the dark parts of the narrative: the feelings of hopelessness, the cruelty of high school. I wasn’t surprised by Melinda’s depression, but I was surprised how much humor there was throughout. I am thinking about the darkly funny holiday scenes (that poor turkey!) or the political correctness absurdity of the school mascot scenes. It’s a fine line to walk in an “issue” book, but Anderson pulls it off brilliantly.

Steph:So basically, you're a fangirl?Lenore: Fangirl doesn't really seem like a reverent enough term for this novel somehow - so I'd say I'm an evangelist. When did you first read it? What were your first impressions?

Steph:Hallellujah! I have this habit of reading hyped books really quickly which in turn makes me miss some of the meaning in the process. When I first read SPEAK, I was like, "Huh." I set it down. Then I returned to it two weeks later and reread it, calmly this time, and...well. One way of putting it is: Soon as I'm legal, I'm getting a tattoo to show my love.

Lenore: Wow - that's pretty permanent. So would you say this is one of your favorite books ever then? And what is that makes it so special in your eyes?

Steph:Well, I don't know if I'll actually get a tattoo. It'd be pretty unreadable by Age Geriatric. But, I would have to say that, YES, I love it. The reasons are a bit more complex: writing that doesn't get weighed down by the subject matter; Melinda's way of conveying her horrible experience in a sensible, poignant way; and, finally, how hopeful the book ends up being.

Basically, this book's potential to touch a million people individually. It's universal and unique, and that's awesome.

Lenore: I know what you mean. I'm not a teen anymore, but there is so much I can relate too. I think about that scene near the beginning when Melinda enters the cafeteria and panics because she's not sure where she should sit. You can't sit alone in high school. Everyone knows that. But it doesn't get any easier when you get older either. I've gone to client parties where I am expected to socialize even though I don't know a soul. It can be scary and intimidating, especially when everyone is in their little cliques and you have to go in somewhere and break the ice.

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comments:

Anonymous
said...

I will have to add this to my reading list! Someone mentioned the movie version of this to me recently (it stars the girl from Twilight) and I remember thinking I should track down the book so thank you for jogging my memory!

I just read Speak for the first time last year and then my husband and I watched the movie. Both were really good! Laurie Halse Anderson is coming to a signing where I live next month and I am SO excited!! Will take photos and blog about it of course!

10 years....seriously? I remember getting this book from the library about well...almost 10 years ago I guess. It's such an amazing book, still one of my favorites to this day. I lost my copy a while back, but now that there is an anniversay edition, more reason to buy right? lol

Loving this feature that you and Lenore have going on!! The library I work at removed this book from the shelves 2 years ago (I was working at a different school bldg while this occured)I have since put this book BACK on the shelves where it deserves to be and have had some pretty wonderful conversations with the students who have read it!! I am a LHA fan big time!!!!!

I'm with both of you on loving, and being intensely impressed by, this book.

ReviewerX, that was a great articulation of why (I especially like how you put it about the writing not being bogged down by the subject matter), and Lenore, I am so with you on the humor. The portrayal of absurdity of high school is one of the things I remember very strongly from this book.

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Hey! For some reason, this embedded comment form makes most people click twice before the comment is processed and published. It's not you - it's just that it's a new Blogger feature with kinks and all that. (But I adore it and don't wanna get rid of it!) I removed Captcha to make the process easier. You don't have to rewrite the comments twice; just click on SUBMIT twice and it should work. If not, email me. Thanks! -Steph